Do-it-yourself. Susie-Homemaker

As many of you know I'm not exactly the Julia Childs–Susie Homemaker type. Roomates, youth kids, and friends alike have witnessed my running frantically around the kitchen as the pasta pot boiled over (or the pasta out because I decided that THAT much pasta COULD be cooked all at once), garlic bread burned in the toaster oven, and pasta sauce blurped and spurted all over the stove.

Yes, pasta is one of the easiest and most beginner recipes, but I've yet to master it, and I'm relatively certain at this point that my brother has far surpassed my cooking abilities (girls he's single... :D ).

However, cooking western food in C-Land has forced me to spread my baby cooking wings and fly, lest I crash on the cliffs of highly priced import items or migraines caused by shopping-at-crazy-small-aisled-too-many-peopled-Carrefour.

These test flights have led me to a few discoveries:

1. Bisquick is over-rated—pancakes ARE easy to make.... and so are biscuits for that matter. However, as silly as it may sound, I may never have discovered this unless I moved to a place where Bisquick (or the like) is improbable to find, and expensive once found. I've since found an amazing "Easy Homestyle Biscuits from Scratch" recipe that is as easy to make as the title claims, and tastes great too. (Since they've obviously already passed on the award for most succinct recipe title they should just re-name the recipe: Easy and Delicious Homestyle Biscuits from Scratch.)

2. Hummus is a quick, easy, and cheap appetizer to supply to any partay. Make your own Tahini (ground white sesame seed and Sesame Oil) and save yourself the trouble of searching the stores (US or C-land) for the canned stuff.

Most recently my cooking-bug-test-flights have been set off by a recipe that I've received through the AllRecipes.com "Daily Dish" email. Inevitably this email leaves me wanting instant recipe gratification, which also inevitably leads to me having to figure out how to make something from scratch rather than go to the store (refer back to migraines caused by shopping-at-crazy-small-aisled-too-many-peopled-Carrefour) to buy it.

The first instance of this was this Baked Oatmeal recipe. The "healthier" suggestion was to replace some of the butter with applesauce. Healthier is good I thought, and proceeded to the internet to find out how to make applesauce (which is terribly expensive here and also requires a trip to afore-mentioned supermarket). I then proceeded to the wet market (a small collection of stalls that sell vegetables, fruit, seeds, nuts, and meat) across the street to purchase apples. Then back home to make applesauce, followed by the baking of delicious Baked Oatmeal bars.

My most recent cooking escapade was started by this Pumpkin Pancakes recipe.
Who can resist this picture!? Plus the comments raved about it while mentioning my weak spot—breakfast for dinner. They had me at hello; however, first another adventure. How to acquire Canned Pumpkin? Once again I turned to the internets for a cheaper, closer-to-home option (actually, as this was already past November I was dubious of finding canned pumpkin in even the most import-y of import shops, a home-made option was necessitated beyond the simple desire to avoid the supermarket or a trip in a taxi).

Happily I came accross this recipe for making your own pumpkin puree. More cute pictures, and a semi-morbid description had me hooked. The cherry on top was that pumpkins were "Fēicháng piányi"–very cheap—at the wet market across the street. That night I proceeded to make pumpkin puree (easier than applesauce). Mine even matched her picture:


Then, this past weekend, I made my very own Pumpkin Pancakes. Cooker beware! These pancakes require LONG time on LOW heat so that they don't burn :( many a little pumpkiny pancake was trashed in my trials. I have been told that the non-burned ones tasted great! :D haha

I feel my cooking wings are growing stronger. However, don't give away my secret. I'd prefer to maintain anonymity and continue to be invited over to others' houses for THEIR delicious home-cooked meals :D

A Sunday Bike Ride

A few weeks ago the weather was still marvelous considering it was mid-December. The sunny, mostly warm days were nothing to scoff at if you've ever experienced a Shanghai winter. Wanting to make the most of the unusually great weather, myself and a couple of friends (Mark and Alex) decided to spend our Sunday afternoon on a wandering bike ride.

Our first stop was an old Daoist Temple hidden in the recesses of Chinese side streets and housing. It took us a few tries, but we finally wound our way back and through to where the old operating temple stood. While the incense burning and chanting to giant statues that were flipping us the bird (literally) was a little much, it did offer some fun photographic opportunities.

We continued to wind our way up wooden flights of stairs and narrow hallways until we came across this bell:

And this drum:

Alex couldn't resist the temptation to at least pretend to hit the drum.

He walked away before his urge to also strike the bell got the best of him.

After the temple, we continued down a small street/canal-side frontage road that my friend John A says you can follow all the way to the ocean. Well, as the sun was setting and the day was turning cold, we never made it all the way to the ocean, but I was able to capture a serene photo of this barge heading up the canal. I was actually surprised to see a boat this large traveling along it.

We made it back to the LQ just as dusk was setting in and the novelty of a warm winter day was turning into the reality of a cold winter night. What a great way to spend a day off!